Qtrade Review 2020

Qtrade offers low fees for stocks, ETF, bond, and mutual fund. There is no inactivity fee as well. The downside is that they charge a maintenance fee of CAD $25 per quarter and the fees for options are quite high.

We ranked Qtrade's fee levels as low, average or high based on how they compare to those of all reviewed brokers.

To get things rolling, let's go over some lingo related to broker fees. What you need to keep an eye on are trading fees, and non-trading fees.

• Trading fees occur when you trade. These can be commissions, spreads, financing rates, and conversion fees.
• Non-trading fees include charges not directly related to trading, like withdrawal fees or inactivity fees.

Below you will find the most relevant fees of Qtrade for each asset class. For example, in the case of stock investing commissions are the most important fees.

We also compared Qtrade's fees with those of two similar brokers we selected, Questrade and RBC Direct Investing. This selection is based on objective factors such as products offered, client profile, fee structure, etc. See a more detailed rundown of Qtrade alternatives.

To have a clear overview of Qtrade, let's start with the trading fees.

Qtrade trading fees

Qtrade offers low stock, ETF, bond and mutual fund fees. The fees for options are high. You get a discount for stock and options fees if you trade more and/or have a higher account balance.

The fee structure is easy to understand and transparent.

Stock fees and ETF fees

Qtrade has generally low stock and ETF commission.

If you prefer stock trading on margin or short sale, you should check Qtrade's financing rates.

What is a financing rate? Financing rates or margin rate is charged when you trade short sale or on margin. Trading on margin basically means that you borrow money from your broker to trade. For borrowed this money you have to pay interest. This is the financing rate. It can be a significant proportion of your trading costs.

Qtrade financing rates are average. The financing rates or also known as margin rates vary based on the base currency of your margin account.

The financing rate above is also applied for Options.

Qtrade charges a base rate and markup for trading on margin. At the time of the review, the base rate was 3.45% for loans in CAD and 4.25% for loans in USD. The markup depends on the debit balance, currency of the debit balance, trade volume, and your account balance.

Fund fees

Qtrade's mutual fund transactions have no commission fees. It's the same as RBC Direct Investing's fees and lower than Questrade's fees.

Bond fees

Qtrade has generally low bond fees. Questrade offers free bonds, while the bond fees at RBC Direct Investing are not transparent.

Qtrade offers primarily Canada-based government, provincial, municipal, and corporate bonds. It charges CAD 1 per CAD 1,000 of face value with a minimum of CAD 24.99 and a maximum of CAD 250.

Options fees

Qtrade options fees are generally high. It's roughly the same as RBC Direct Investing's commissions.

They charge a flat fee of CAD 8.75 plus a variable fee of CAD 1.25 per contract. The flat fee is reduced to CAD 6.95 if you make more than 150 trades per quarter and/or have at least CAD 500,000 account balance.

Non-trading fees

Qtrade has low to average non-trading fees. It charges no inactivity fee and there is no withdrawal fee. Although they charge a CAD 25 per quarter fee unless you satisfy one of the following criteria:

• have more than CAD 25,000 account balance
• you made two stock or options trades in the last quarter
• you made eight stock or options trades in the last twelve months
• you have automatic deposits activated monthly of at least CAD $ 100.
• your age is between 18 and 30 years and you add at least CAD 50 to your account each month

There are many further fees you might be interested, just to mention a few:

• CAD 100 is charged if you close your account within the first year after your account is opened
• Transferring out assets costs CAD 150
• If you set USD as the base currency for registered accounts (LIF, RIF), there is a USD 15 per quarter fee

Qtrade has an easy and fully digital account opening process. There is no minimum deposit and you can choose from many account types. However, the account opening and verification takes a bit longer, 2-3 business days.

Can you open an account?

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What is the minimum deposit at Qtrade?

There is no minimum deposit for Qtrade.

Account types

You can choose different account types based on ownership:

• Individual account: account is owned by an individual
• Joint account: account is owned by two or more individuals
• Non-personal accounts (corporate, organization, trust): account is owned by a legal entity

Within the individual account, Qtrade offers more account types such as:

*When you trade with money borrowed from the broker 

How to open your account

Qtrade's account opening process is fully digital and account opening times range between 2-3 business days. Our account was verified within 3 business days.

1. Add your email address and set a password
2. Select your account type and account base currency
3. Add personal information, like date of birth or residency
4. Answer a few questions relating to your financial knowledge
5. Choose your funding options
6. Sign and submit. Wait for the response by email if you've been approved or whether more information is needed.

Qtrade offers user-friendly and free deposit and withdrawal. Unfortunately, limited methods of withdrawing and depositing can be a problem for some.

Account base currencies

Like the competitors, Qtrade offers two base currencies: USD and CAD.

Questrade offers 2 base currencies and RBC Direct Investing has 2 base currencies.

Why does this matter? For two reasons. First, if you fund your account in the same currency as your bank account, you are not charged a currency conversion fee. Second, if you trade assets in the same currency as your account base currency, you don't have to pay a conversion fee.

A convenient way to save on the currency conversion fees is opening a multi-currency bank account. Revolut or Transferwise both offer bank accounts in several currencies with great currency exchange rates as well as free or cheap international bank transfers. The account opening only takes a few minutes on your phone.

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Deposit fees and options

Qtrade charges no deposit fees. You will have the following option to deposit funds:

• Electronic Transfer from a bank account
• Bill payee through online banking

A bank transfer can take several business days, while payment with a credit/debit card is instant.

You can only deposit money from accounts that are in your name.

Qtrade withdrawal fees and options

Qtrade doesn't charge a withdrawal fee. You can use the same withdrawal options as for deposit.

How long does it take to withdraw money from Qtrade? We tested the bank transfer withdrawal and it took 2 business days.

How do you withdraw money from Qtrade? You can withdraw money from Qtrade by following these steps:

1. Log into your account
2. Move your cursor over 'My Accounts' to open the drop-down menu
3. Click on 'Transfer Funds'
4. Choose your method of transfer
5. Choose the account to withdraw from, the amount, currency and method
6. Choose which account to transfer to
7. Initiate withdrawal

Compare to other brokers

Qtrade brings you a basic and tradition trading platform. Their alert system sending you price alerts and order confirmations are necessities for some while having clear fees and portfolio reports are also very useful. However, they do not offer a two-step login and the design looks and feels outdated.

Qtrade offers an in-house developed web trading platform. It is available in both English and French.

Look and feel

The Qtrade web trading platform is OK. It's easy to use, however, the design feels outdated and we found some bugs during testing. For example, the order panel didn't work or we couldn't check the account summary.

There is no option to customize the platform.

Login and security

Qtrade provides only a one-step login process. A two-step login would be preferred and more secure but will have to wait for a future update.

When you log in on any device, you will have the traditional security of answering security questions.

Search functions

The search functions are good. A responsive feeling when typing and it gives relevant answers to your query. 

Placing orders

Qtrade offers a great number of order types:

• Market 
• Limit 
• Stop limit 
• Stop market 
• Trailing stop market
• Trailing stop limit

If you are not familiar with the basic order types, read this overview.

There is also one order time limit you can use:

• Good till time

Alerts and notifications

You can set price and news alerts through the web trading platform.

However, you can set only email notifications, we missed the push notifications on mobile. We didn't like that you have to use the assets' ticker for searching an asset. It would be much easier if you could use the assets' name. 

Portfolio and fee reports

Qtrade offers a clear fee and portfolio report. If you have an account, you can find them if you go to 'MyAccount' > 'Service center' > 'View eDocuments'.

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Qtrade's mobile trading platform has almost the same design and functionalities as the web trading platform. The biggest downsides are that there are no price alert function or two-step login and we found some glitches during the testing.

Similarly to the web trading platform, Qtrade has an in-house developed mobile trading platform. It is available both on iOS and Android. We tested it on the iOS version.

Most of the functionalities are the same as the web trading platform. It offers the same order types, has the same search functions, and offers only one-step login.

The design is very basic and has given us a few glitches and crashes when tested. Unlike the web trading platform, you are unable to set alerts.

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Qtrade does not offer a desktop trading platform.

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Qtrade's product offer covers only the Canadian and US markets. You can trade with basic asset classes like stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, etc. On the other, forex, futures, CFD, and crypto asset classes are missing.

Qtrade has a great mutual fund offer. The stock, ETF, and bond offers are almost the same as its Canadian competitors.

Stock and ETF

Qtrade gives access to North American stock exchanges. That pales in comparison to other brokers in their market but does make them perfect for clients who focus exclusively on the Canadian and US markets.

You can trade on the following stock exchanges: NASDAQ, S&P 500, TSX, TSXV, and Aequitas NEO Exchange.

Fund

Qtrade offers a lot of mutual funds. It's better than at their direct competitors.

Bond

Qtrade offers bonds in various categories, such as municipal bonds, corporate bonds, and provincial bonds.

The number of bonds is average, but it is an ideal selection if you prefer Canadian fixed income securities.

Options

Qtrade gives access to options markets, however, it's not transparent which ones.

Qtrade's research tools are designed for clients preferring fundamental analysis. You can use analyst recommendations, fundamental data, screeners, etc. The charting tool and other analytic tools are very basic though and the design of the research tools is outdated.

You can find the research tools on the web trading platform, under the 'Investment Tools' and 'Research' sections. Similarly to the web trading platform, the research tools have an outdated design and are available both in English and French.

Trading ideas

Qtrade provides trading ideas provided by Morningstar, a third-party research tool provider. You can find them in the 'Analyst Recommendations' under the 'Research' section.

You can see whether you should buy, hold, or sell the specific asset. What we missed is the information about the analysts providing these recommendations.

Fundamental data

Qtrade offers fundamental data. From financial statements to performance or price history, you'll find a lot of data.

Charting

Qtrade has basic charting tools. You can use only a few technical indicators and chart editor tools. If you prefer technical analysis, Qtrade's reserach tools are not suitable for you.

Newsfeed

The newsfeed is average. It is easily readable but lacks visual elements, like charts or pictures. It's provided by third-parties, like Barrons.com, InvestorsObserver, etc.

Other research tools you will enjoy

You can use screeners for stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds. From the price data to basic company information, you can use a wide range of filters.

There is also a value analyzer. Based on the assets' fundamentals, there is a value analysis and rate of return estimation.

A Technical Research tool is also provided. An algorithm recognizes patterns and support/resistance levels using chart data.

Compare research pros and cons

Qtrade provides excellent telephone and email support. On the negative side, live chat and 24/7 availability are not provided.

You can contact Qtrade via:

• telephone
• email

The telephone support was average speed. We got accurate and helpful answers, but we had to wait more than 5 minutes on average until someone was connected. 

Qtrade's email support works well. Through email, we got relevant answers with their customer support by answering our questions within 1 day. 

We missed the live chat and 24/7 availability. You must wait for business hours in North America to contact support.

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Qtrade offers many traditional education tools such as tutorials, strategic videos, and demo account. A few complaints are that the demo/practice accounts are not advertised unless you are specifically looking for it. They also seem to not update content on a regular basis.

At Qtrade you can learn in the following ways:

• Demo account
• Platform tutorial videos
• General educational videos
• Quality educational articles

By far the most useful educational tool Qtrade offers is their practice accounts. Using practice accounts, clients can simulate investing and trading before even depositing funds. However, these accounts are not openly advertised. 

We also liked that some educational articles or videos are provided by prominent third-parties, like Morningstar or Financial Times, but it would be nice to have some original content too.

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Qtrade is regulated by the top-tier IIROC and offers a high amount of investor protection. Its parent companies, Aviso Wealth and Desjardins Group, have a solid financial background. Nevertheless, Qtrade is not listed on any stock exchange and doesn't provide financial reports annually to transparently display the company's health.

Is Qtrade regulated?

Yes, it is regulated by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) and is a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF).

Is Qtrade safe?

To be certain, we highly advise to check two facts:

• how you are protected if something goes wrong
• and what the background of the broker is.

How you are protected

This is important for you because the investor protection amount and the regulator differ from entity to entity. With Qtrade, this is not an issue because all customers are covered by Credential Qtrade Securities Inc.

Credential Qtrade Securities Inc. is a member of CIPF. Therefore, the clients of Qtrade are eligible for the CAD 1 million coverage offered by CIPF. 

It is also worth noting that Qtrade does not provide negative balance protection.

Background

Qtrade was established in 2000. The longer track record a broker has, the more proof we have that it has successfully survived previous financial crises.

Qtrade is now the subsidiary of Aviso Wealth Inc. which offers many financial services, from online brokerage to insurance.

It's also a great plus that Aviso Wealth Inc. is backed by Desjardins Group which is one of the biggest financial groups in the world.

Having a top-tier regulation, offering high investor protection amount, and having solid parent companies are all great signs for Qtrade's safety.

Find your safe broker

Qtrade offers competitive stock, ETF, bond, and mutual fund fees. The account opening is easy and fully digital. The education resources are outstanding, they provide a lot of relevant and useful tools.

Qtrade does, however, have its downfalls. The biggest downfall is its product portfolio which covers only the US and Canadian markets. Other things that can be improved are missing credit/debit cards/ electronic wallets for money transfers and some bugs in its user interface.

Since Qtrade provides great trading fees, easy account opening, and top-quality educational tools, feel free to give them a try today.

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